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Par Pierre-Andréa Fraile | Journaliste sportif
Eliminated by the Timberwolves at the end of a series of five short games, the Lakers had to endure a Rudy Gobert demonstration in Game 5. Powerless against the Frenchman, Rui Hachimura didn’t mince his words about him afterwards.
Up to that point, he had probably been the Timberwolves’ least impressive player in the first round. Rudy Gobert was going through a tricky series against the Lakers… before waking up with a bang on Wednesday. With a huge double-double of 27 points and 24 rebounds (!), the French pivot truly humiliated his opponents, taking advantage of their glaring shortcomings in the paint.
Rui Hachimura’s honest assessment of Rudy Gobert
In the absence of a solid pivot in their line-up, the Lakers tried a small-ball approach that clearly didn’t work against Minnesota. This left LeBron James bitter, as he still can’t quite digest his managers’ choices on the market. Also left to his own devices in Game 5 of this series,
Rui Hachimura: We weren’t good enough at rebounding. In fact, you can see for yourself by looking at the stats. We need someone who can grab rebounds. Personally, I need to be better in that area too, and show more commitment.
At 2.03m, the Japanese winger was, after all, one of the tallest players in the Lakers’ starting five.
During his 39 minutes on the floor, he managed just 4 rebounds.Worse still, he couldn’t stop Gobert from soaring in this area.It has to be said that this mission seemed quite simply “impossible” in his eyes:
Rui Hachimura: I can’t spend the whole game trying to contain Gobert on the rebound in one-on-one situations.
Against him, I can’t take a single rebound in this configuration. It’s impossible. He’s 2m18 (2m16, ndlr) and must have a wingspan of 2m26 (2m36, ndlr)… Quite simply, he’s a big man.
Unable to solve the equation posed by the French international under the basket, the Lakers would have opened up loopholes into which their opponents rushed in an attempt to do so. At least, that’s what Hachimura is complaining about, and he too seems to be waiting for reinforcements in this sector:
Rui Hachimura: I think the problem was that we tried to put two and two together to contain Gobert, so it was easy for the other Wolves players to get offensive rebounds. Gobert wasn’t the only player capable of grabbing rebounds. Apart from Mike Conley, all their starters could. I think that’s what the game came down to.
